31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Just after Jesus cleared the temple in John 2, John records, “Many believed in His name when they saw the signs that He was doing. But Jesus on His part did not entrust Himself to them.” (John 2:23–24)
You often hear that when someone comes to faith in Jesus, that he or she has “accepted Jesus,” however, it is far more important that we should be accepted by Him. We ended last Sunday with 8:30. “As He was saying these things, many believed in Him.” Jesus now turns to these new believers, as He explains just how important it is for their faith in Him to be genuine, rather than false or weak, in order for them to truly be His disciples.
Earlier in John 8, just after the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus had declared Himself to be the Light of the World, and while this brought a positive response from at least some of the people He was teaching, they needed to know that there is a difference between a true and a false faith in Him.
John Calvin writes of verse 31 in his commentary, “Here Christ warns them, in the first place, that it is not enough for any one to have begun well, if their progress to the end do not correspond to it; and for this reason He exhorts to perseverance in the faith those who have tasted of His doctrine. When He says that they who are firmly rooted in His word, so as to continue in Him, will truly be His disciples, He means that many profess to be disciples who yet are not so in reality, and have no right to be accounted such. He distinguishes His followers from hypocrites by this mark, that they who falsely boasted of faith give way as soon as they have entered into the course, or at least in the middle of it; but believers persevere constantly to the end. If, therefore, we wish that Christ should reckon us to be His disciples, we must endeavour to persevere.”
When Jesus speaks about true discipleship in verse 31, He is talking about the importance of those who confess faith in Him to have the kind of faith that endures, or perseveres. The point is that a faith which does not endure is not true or saving faith. Notice what He says in verse 31: “If you abide in my word.” It’s that word “abide” that makes all the difference, because merely agreeing that Jesus was a wise teacher or acknowledging that the Bible contains some wonderful life-lessons is not enough.
As John 20:31 says, “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” Jesus is seeking and calling true disciples - those who will abide in His Word.
This word abide is an important word in John’s Gospel, and we will be looking at it in greater detail when we reach chapter 15. Jesus says in verses 4-6, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”
When we use the word “abide” we tend to think it means to remain or to continue to dwell, but Jesus gives this a far greater meaning in chapter 15, where He uses the analogy of a branch relying on its connection to the vine in order to sustain life itself. So abiding in Him means far more than giving mental assent to the Bible and calling ourselves Christians. It is about abiding, or living in His Word in the way that a branch has to stay connected to a vine.
True disciples are those who find their life in His Word and in that way bear His fruit. It’s all about growing in grace, and growing in our faith as we walk with Him in a living relationship on a daily basis. The theological term for this is sanctification. At the moment of salvation we are justified in God’s sight. In other words, as we turn to Christ in repentance and faith, we are saved. This is a once-off event, where we are received by God on the basis of putting our faith in Jesus and His death on the cross for us. At the moment of salvation, we are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus, but that is only the start of our journey of faith.
There needs to be growth. There needs to be evidence or fruit in our walk with Him. Now of course, this does not mean that we’re expected to be or ever will be perfect disciples. We remain sinners who fall into temptation. Life is hard, and our circumstances often challenge our faith. God knows that better than we do, so by His grace, He will continue to draw us to Himself, but this is only possible when we abide in Christ and His Word.
The validity or genuineness of our faith is evident when we continue and abide in the life and Word of Jesus. As we saw last Sunday, John 8:30 gives us a glimmer of hope, when we see people turning to Jesus and believing in Him. “As He was saying these things, many believed in Him,” but the last verse of chapter 8 shows that not all of these people were truly His disciples. “They picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.” Some of these people who wanted to stone Him were among those mentioned in verse 30, which shows that they did not truly believe in Him.
This is why we need to question ourselves, and our commitment to Jesus. Are we really abiding in His Word? Is the Word of God the food for our souls that it is meant to be? How have our lives really been transformed by the faith we proclaim to have?
The point is not to put ourselves on some kind of guilt trip. We need to guard against slipping into legalism, which is very easy to do, so the way the NKJV translates Jesus’ words in verse 31 might help us. “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.” That last word is important, as Jesus makes a distinction between those who are disciples and those who are disciples indeed. A disciple is anyone who professes to be a learner, but a disciple indeed is one who has genuinely committed him or herself to Christ. Those who are true believers have this characteristic - they abide in His Word. This means that they continue in the teachings of Jesus, because true faith always has the quality of permanence. Those who are disciples indeed are not saved by abiding in His Word, but they abide in His Word because they are saved.
In Matthew 13, Jesus used the parable of the sower to illustrate this point. “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” (Matthew 13:3-8)
In this parable, there are four kinds of soil on which the seed of God’s Word falls. The first three are pictures of people who are not true disciples.
The first was a path, and the seed lay there until it eaten by birds. This is the unbeliever who neither understands nor accepts God’s Word at all.
The second soil was rocky ground, which had some soil, but not enough for the plants to grow properly. They did grow initially, but because of the rocky ground, the roots weren’t deep enough, so the hot sun scorched the plants. This describes those who receive the Gospel message initially, but the truth of Christ and His Word doesn’t penetrate deeply enough. When Jesus explained this parable to His disciples, He said in verse 21, “He has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.”
The third soil was full of weeds and thorns. This depicts those who are sometimes called worldly Christians. Jesus explains in verse 22, “This is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.”
All three of these soils describe something less than true discipleship. None of these people are truly saved. It is only the good soil, soil which is prepared by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, that proves to be genuine. Jesus says in verse 23, “As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
The doctrine that describes what Jesus is teaching in this parable is called the perseverance of the saints, but it is not really about something we are to do or to achieve. Rather, it speaks about what God has done and continues to do for His elect.
Most of us know people who have made a profession of faith in Jesus, who have been involved in the life and ministry of the Church, only to later reject that faith and walk away. This raises the question, can a person once saved lose his salvation?
Reformed theology’s answer to that question is a firm “no.” The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, also called eternal security, teaches that if you have saving faith you will never lose it, and if you lose it, you never had it in the first place.
1 John 2:19 says, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” John is speaking here about the first three soils in the parable of the sower. It is only the seed that falls on the good soil that yields the fruit of obedience, but again, it bears repeating that the doctrine of perseverance does not depend on our ability to persevere, but rather on the promise of God to preserve us. Paul writes in Philippians 1:6, “I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” It is by grace and grace alone that Christians persevere. God finishes what He begins.
Paul also writes in Romans 8:30 and 39, “Those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Those who persevere are those who adhere to and abide in the teaching of Jesus Christ. They trust in His Gospel for their very souls, and they live their lives according to Biblical, rather than worldly standards. This does not mean that a true disciple does not go through times of stronger or weaker faith. Nor does it mean that a true disciple of Jesus never falters and is always 100% committed to Him. What it does mean is that a true disciple keeps turning to the Word for truth and life, and lives under the grace of God in order to find cleansing, renewal, forgiveness, and strength.
True discipleship is not something that happens only at the beginning and end of our Christian lives, however. Instead, it is the lifelong experience of all who truly follow Jesus. This is what Jesus meant in the two verses we are focussing on today. “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31–32)
The Christian life is one of increasing growth in the knowledge of truth. In verse 12 Jesus said, “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” One of the great benefits of a life of discipleship is having our eyes increasingly opened to see the truth. When you first came to faith, you were a spiritual babe, and there were many rough edges that God has dealt with over the years. Things that at first didn’t really bother you as a Christian, you now see and understand differently. That is no coincidence. We used to live in darkness, being deceived by the lies of the world, the flesh and the devil, but as we abide in His Word, we find that God renews us by the transforming of our minds, as Paul writes in Romans 12:2. John Calvin explains it so well. “It is the same unvarying truth which Christ teaches His own from first to last; but first He enlightens them with small sparks, as it were, and finally pours out a full light upon them.”
Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” There are times when God only gives us enough light and truth for just the next step, but that is enough as He preserves us and teaches us His ways.
As we spend time in His Word, He will reveal His truth to us, and He will give us the foundation we need to bear the fruit of a true disciple of Jesus.
What is the truth which Jesus refers to? The truth is first and foremost Jesus Himself. He said in 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” To know the truth is always to know Jesus. He prayed in 17:3, “This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
But the truth is also about understanding and accepting the Gospel message and the doctrines of salvation taught in the Bible. Jesus says that by abiding in His Word, we will know the truth of salvation.
I mentioned last week that one of the greatest challenges facing the Church today is Biblical illiteracy. We have to know what we believe, and why we believe it, and the only way to properly understand the Christian faith is to know the Word of God.
Are we absolutely clear in our minds as to how sinners are justified through faith in Christ and how we are called and empowered to holiness in our lives? The answers are in the Bible. One of the great expository preachers of the 20th century, Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “False doctrine makes joy in the Lord impossible. If our faith is not true and right, we can never experience the blessings of salvation, so we need to understand the teaching of the Bible with regard to doctrine and practice.”
A true disciple of Christ who abides in His Word will continue to grow in grace and truth. This does not mean we will reach the point where we know it all and have all of the answers, but as we grow in the knowledge of the truth, we will better be able to make sense of this life, with all its struggles and evil, as well as the joys. A true disciple knows that the world is bound in sin, and is not surprised by trials and evil, because there is a firm faith that looks to the world to come with the return of Jesus. Of course this life is hard. We don’t need to be reminded of that, but when our faith is rooted in Christ, we rest on the assurance that these things will pass, and that God has promised us a new and eternal life which is infinitely better than this one.
By abiding in the Word of Christ, we will be following Him. Do you want to make sense of this life and the purpose of your very existence? Then you must know Christ and His Word. David wrote in Psalm 19, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.” (Psalm 19:7-10)
The words of Jesus in John 8:31-32 again: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Freedom is the great quest of every human being. It has been and continues to be the single biggest ambition of us all. The Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau famously said more than 200 years ago, “Man is born free but everywhere is in chains.” He was half right. We are in chains, but we’re not born free. We are born in bondage and slavery to sin, and the only way to escape that slavery to sin and its eternal consequences is to be set free by Jesus Christ.
At the start of His ministry, in Luke 4, Jesus quoted numerous Old Testament passages when He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” (Luke 4:18-19)
He was speaking here about the spiritually poor, the spiritual captives, the spiritually blind and the spiritually oppressed. And who are they? Everyone who is born into sin, which includes each of us. It is by revealing His truth to us that Jesus sets us free. As we become aware of our bondage to sin, as we recognise our need for a Saviour outside of ourselves, and as we turn to Christ in repentance and faith, we abide in His Word as we learn the truth, and by knowing the truth our lives are set free.
We are free in the sense that we know that at the end of our lives, we will have nothing to fear. We need not fear having to stand in the presence of a Holy God, because the Bible teaches us that it was Jesus who bore the wrath of God at our sin for us.
When Jesus commissioned the twelve apostles to preach the Gospel in Matthew 10, He told them they would face tremendous persecution for doing so, but He said in verse 26, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” And Hebrews 10:31 says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Those who reject salvation in Christ will one day understand the terrible truth of these words, but if you are a true disciple who is abiding in the Word of Christ, you have nothing to fear, because Jesus has set you free.
Homegroup Study Notes
Read John 8:31-32
The New King James Version translates Jesus’ words in verse 31, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.”
Discuss the significance of the word ‘indeed.’
What are the differences between true and false disciples of Jesus?
What does it mean to abide in His Word?
Read Matthew 13:3-8
We know this parable well, but how does it relate to Jesus’ words in John 8:31-32?
In this life, we remain tainted by our sinful nature. This means we will never reach perfect spiritual maturity while on this side of the grave, so how can we know the truth?
What is your understanding of the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints (also called eternal security?)
How do we interpret 1 John 2:19 in the light of this doctrine?
How does the truth set us free, and what does it set us free from?